One incredible fantasy book is being brought to the TV screen, and it will be the perfect follow-up to a six-year-old dark fantasy show with an impressive 91% Rotten Tomatoes score. The fantasy genre ranges from nostalgic shows like Xena: Warrior Princess to thrilling shows like Castlevania.
However, every subgenre has at least one show that defines it. Historical fantasy has Game of Thrones. Monster of the week fantasy has Supernatural. Vampire fantasy has Buffy, The Vampire Diaries, and The Originals. Meanwhile, animated fantasy has Arcane and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The show that best defines dark fantasy is The Magicians, based on the books by Lev Grossman. It’s a rare fantasy TV adaptation that’s better than the book. The Magicians ran from 2015 to 2020, and it garnered a passionate fanbase. Six years after the ending of the show, we finally have news about an upcoming fantasy adaptation that would be perfect for The Magicians fans.
No Fantasy TV Show Has Captured The Brilliance Of The Magicians
I’m absolutely obsessed with The Magicians, and nothing has ever quite scratched the same itch. The fantasy show is very different from most TV shows in the genre because it blends together urban fantasy, dark academia, and high fantasy.
The Magicians centers on a group of graduate students at a magic school called Brakebills University who accidentally summon a murderous creature, called The Beast, from the fictional world of Fillory. They must join together to take him down before he can murder them and doom Fillory.
The characters we’re supposed to root for are all deeply flawed and complex, with incredible performances from The Magicians’ cast. They drive the story, with plotlines that challenge them and force them to grow. The show handles the subject of sex in a great way, never judging or shaming the characters for wanting sex. The storylines explore consent and pleasure, two elements often left out of sex portrayals.
The series also isn’t afraid to put its main characters through deeply traumatic situations. They don’t hide the fact that the world is terrible. Every time I recommend the show to someone, I have to go through a laundry list of potential triggers. The Magicians explores the idea that magic cannot fix personal issues, let alone mental illness or sexual assault.
Rather than tiptoeing around blood and gore, The Magicians also ramps it up to the maximum. Within the first season, the dean gets his eyes ripped out, and a person mangles a bunny. It’s a darkness that few fantasy shows are daring enough to embrace.
Ultimately, these elements combine to make a unique TV show that refuses to let the audience escape from reality. It won’t appeal to everyone, but those in the target audience will find a story that lingers long after the last episode.
The King Sorrow TV Show Will Be The Perfect Follow-Up To The Magicians
Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, has also become a novelist, and his almost 900-page book King Sorrow is currently being adapted for a TV show (via Bloody Disgusting), though no other information is available about the project. However, even without information about the production team or cast, there’s reason to be excited. The book is the perfect follow-up to The Magicians.
King Sorrow centers on Arthur Oakes and five other university students who use the Crane journey, a book of magic bound with its author’s skin, to summon a dragon to do their bidding. However, their Faustian bargain with the eponymous dragon requires them to sacrifice a human every year on Easter, lest they become his dinner.
The book has all the same characteristics that make The Magicians such a lovable TV show. The story doesn’t shy away from violence and gore. In fact, it’s integral. The characters – the bookworm Arthur, the rich kid Colin, the beautiful Alison, the twins Donna and Donovan, and the brainy Gwen – each come with a huge set of baggage and numerous flaws.
King Sorrow doesn’t shy away from the difficult subjects, which I will break down in another section. The story’s scale is massive. The book includes sex. The tone is dark and heavy, but it still has some comedic moments and snarky characters to provide levity. If the team behind the King Sorrow TV show doesn’t shy away from the book’s content, it’s bound to be a favorite for The Magicians fans.
King Sorrow & The Magicians Blend Fantasy & Horror Together
King Sorrow and The Magicians are unquestionably fantasy stories. The Joe Hill book features dragons, trolls, ghosts, and a number of other supernatural beings. The magical system seems heavily rooted in the occult. On the other hand, The Magicians has fairies, ghosts, vampires, dragons, talking animals, and so much more. Their magic system has godly aspects and also very technical finger positions.
That being said, neither uses magic as a crutch. Many fantasy shows and books like to present the idea that magic fixes problems. It’s wish fulfillment that extends from the fairy tales that children hear when they’re young. However, Joe Hill’s King Sorrow mirrors The Magicians’ core tenet that magic cannot fix personal or societal issues. Both stories understand that magic can be just as helpful as it is harmful.
The Magicians’ darkest moments include but are not limited to, rape, abortion, slavery, addiction, child sexual abuse, homophobia, suicide, and child murder. Similarly, King Sorrow goes to extremely dark places. The book includes rape, child sexual assault, abuse, addiction, homophobia, suicide, abortion, torture, and pedophilia.
The inclusion of these issues in The Magicians and King Sorrow provides good grounding. It reminds readers that the horrors don’t just come from a moth-faced villain or a sardonic dragon. The society we live in is filled with absolute horrors, perpetrated by the humans around us. Our brains have illnesses that can make life more difficult. These things don’t go away just because of magic.
As mentioned, King Sorrow and The Magicians feature real-life horrors. However, this isn’t the only way that the two stories blend together fantasy and horror. The Magicians is filled with dark, gory moments that made my stomach churn, and I’m a horror lover. Without any spoilers, King Sorrow also has dread-inducing moments that will make readers feel like they need to run away.
All in all, The Magicians and King Sorrow feel like they are built from the same narrative and stylistic DNA. If the King Sorrow TV show captures the spirit of the book, it’s going to be absolutely incredible. In the meantime, I will continue to watch The Magicians on repeat.
- Release Date
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2015 – 2020-00-00
- Showrunner
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Sera Gamble
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Jason Ralph
Quentin Coldwater
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Olivia Taylor Dudley
Alice Quinn
